PEN America works tirelessly to defend free expression, support persecuted writers, and promote literary culture. Here are some of the latest ways PEN America is speaking out.
- PEN America is joining a federal lawsuit as a plaintiff, along with the ACLU of Tennessee, against Rutherford County Board of Education. Defending 32 of our author members whose books have been removed from school libraries, we are alleging the violation of the First Amendment rights of students to read and the author’s rights to express themselves. Read more here.
- PEN America is standing with nine authors impacted by a case in Maryland filed by six parents who want the option to opt their children out of classrooms when books related to LGBTQ+ is being read. We published a blog post on how the books were misrepresented in the media. Read the post here.
- We also interviewed five authors named in the case. Read our interviews with Sarah S. Brannen, Sarah and Ian Hoffman, Robin Stevenson, Katherine Locke, and Charlotte Sullivan Wild.
- PEN America announced the lineup for the 20th World Voices Festival, bringing more than 80 authors from more than 35 countries to New York City’s Greenwich Village and Los Angeles. From April 30 to May 3, writers and great thinkers, including Jodi Picoult, M. Gessen, Daniel Kehlmann, Sigrid Nunez, Rana Ayyub, Guadalupe Nettel, and more, will convene for exclusive panels, interviews, and film screenings. Learn more here and get tickets here.
- PEN America called Harvard University’s response to the Trump administration’s demands, reaffirming the institution’s values, “heartening.” In a statement, Kristen Shaverdian, campus free speech program director, said, “At a time when we have seen law firms, news outlets and universities fold under Trump’s pressure, we applaud Harvard University for holding the line.” Read the full statement here.
- PEN America condemned a bill in Texas which, if passed, would undermine the academic freedoms of universities, curtailing curriculum and sidelining faculty. “SB 37 is an outright power grab that replaces pedagogy and process with ideology and cronyism,” said Amy Reid, Freedom to Learn senior manager. “It is bad for students and educators and bad for the state of Texas.” Read our statement here.
- PEN America hosted a literary salon in Washington, DC at the storied Busboys and Poets bookstore and cafe. Dozens of PEN America members, diplomats, and policy makers convened for an evening of poetry and community. Read more about the evening here.
- PEN America’s Clare Carter wrote a blog post on how Idaho’s bill banning DEI is a wake up call for higher education at large. Read more here.
- PEN America president, Jennifer Finney Boylan, was on Ali Velshi’s Banned Book Club on MSNBC. They spoke about the ban of Boylan’s book, Good Boy: My Life In Seven Dogs, which is one of the books recently banned in the U.S. Naval Academy libraries. Watch the segment here.
- PEN America’s Jonathan Friedman was on The Daily Blast podcast with The New Republic journalist Greg Sargent, dissecting what Harvard’s refusal of the Trump administration’s demands means for higher education across the country. Listen here.
- The Boston Globe published an op-ed by Sarah S. Brannen, one of the authors in the SCOTUS case in Maryland. Read it here.
- For this week’s PEN Ten interview, we spoke to Seán Hewitt, whose latest book, Open, Heaven, tells the story of a young man in rural England, feeling marginalized for his sexuality and a love story blossoming with the new kid in town. Read the full interview here.
- For Shelf Love, our interview series with romance authors in collaboration with Authors Against Book Bans, we spoke to Adriana Herrera about what it means to be writing in the genre today. Read the interview here.
